178 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The, in many respects, remarkable season, 

 now speedily drawing to its close, has "been 

 suggestive of much thought as to how best to 

 provide against the vicissitudes and extremes 

 of various seasons. A wet and cool spring, 

 followed by a severe drought over a large 

 area of our country, has plainly demonstrated 

 that manure in itself is not sufficient to pro- 

 duce good crops, and that frequent cultiva- 

 tion and thorough preparation of the soil 

 will, in many cases, be productive of better 

 crops than any amount of fertilizers applied 

 to insufficiently prepared and slovenly culti- 

 vated ground. The natural formation of 

 some lands is of such a character as to re- 

 quire little more than good plowing and har- 

 rowing to fit them for advantageous culture. 

 A much larger acreage, however, is too heavy 

 and impermeable to admit of early and 

 profitable tillage. On all such soils it may 

 be safely asserted that no investment pays 

 better than 



Draining, and this season above all others 

 is specially adapted for the work. As a rule 

 it pays best, in the end at least, to do every- 

 thing connected with it as perfectly as pos- 

 sible. Whatever plan is pursued, a good 

 outlet must be secured before anything else 

 is attempted. Whether tiles, or stone, or 

 brush are used, all are equally inefficient 

 without this prime condition. 



Celery. — The chief points in wintering 

 Celery are to keep the roots moist, the stalks 

 and leaves dry, and all as cool as possible 

 without heavy freezing. When these condi- 

 tions are supplied, all else is of minor impor- 

 tance. When large quantities are to be 

 stored, outdoor ditches or trenches are gen- 

 erally resorted to ; some market gardeners 

 use pits and outdoor cellars for this purpose. 

 In a small way, for home use, however , ; the 

 convenience of having everything handy and 

 near by outweighs a great many other con- 

 siderations ; and there is no housewife nor 

 servant-girl who would not rather step dry- 

 footed to the cellar for a few stalks of Celery 

 than to brave through storm and wind and 

 dig it from under snow and ice. 



We have sometimes kept Celery in com- 

 mon soap-boxes by scattering some soil over 

 the bottom and packing the roots close to- 

 gether, giving occasionally water enough to 

 keep the soil wet. This is a neat and con- 

 venient way, but for some cause the stalks 

 will become bitter sometimes. A plan that 

 has never failed us is to bring some rather 

 heavy soil to a cool cellar, and heel in the 

 roots close together. The rows should be 

 placed parallel with the wall, and the first 

 one leaned upright against it. When all is 

 disposed of in this way, a board should be 

 laid against the outside row. This board is 

 not removed until all is used, — the supply 

 wanted from time to time being taken 

 from the ends of the rows, — except when the 

 soil becomes dry. The board is then lifted 

 up, and with a long-spouted watering-can 

 water is poured over the roots, taking great 

 care not to wet the stalks and leaves. In 

 very dry cellars this may be necessary every 

 two weeks ; in damp ones it may not be re- 

 quired all winter. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 



The series of frequent reports, issued to 

 inform the public of the progress made at 

 the New York State Experiment Station, has 

 already been productive of more benefit to 

 the farmers and gardeners of the State than 

 the entire appropriation amounts to. The 

 director, Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, by taking the 

 public into his confidence, by recording 

 failures as carefully as successes, and by 

 illustrating the many difficulties which con- 

 stantly encounter the experimenter, and the 

 various deceptive results which tend to lead 

 him into the temptation to "jump at conclu- 

 sions," has given to agriculturists generally 

 a clearer understanding and appreciation of 

 the importance and possibilities of Experi- 

 ment Stations than they ever had before. 



The following are among the most im- 

 portant results of experiments recently made 

 at the Station : 



THE SELECTION OF SEED CORN. 



An experiment designed to determine the 

 influence of the butt and tip kernels used 

 as seed, and to prove the correctness or 

 fallacy of the custom of rejecting the butt ' 

 and tip kernels from the selection of Seed 

 Corn, as is an almost universal practice 

 among our most careful farmers, resulted in 

 demonstrating that : 

 a 1. The tip kernels were the most prolific 

 of good Corn. 



2. The butt kernels were more prolific of 

 good" Corn than the central kernels. 



3. The tip kernels bore longer ears than 

 the other kernels, the butt kernels the next, 

 and the central kernels the shortest. 



4. The merchantable ears from the butt 

 were distinctly heavier than those from the I 

 tip, and those from the tip distinctly heavier 

 than those from the central kernels. 



5. The butt kernels furnished more un- 

 merchantable Corn than did the central 

 kernels, and the central kernals more than 

 did the tip kernels. 



MUSK MELONS. 



The Christiana was found the most satis- 

 factory among the varieties tried. One pecu- 

 liarity of it is that it becomes detached from 

 the stem as soon as ripe, so that one is never 

 at a loss to know when to pick it, and it is in 

 the best possible condition for eating the 

 hour that it becomes free. 



In growing Melons, it is recommended to 

 add a handful of sulphate of potash or sev- 

 eral handfuls of wood-ashes to each hill. 

 The effect seemed to be to improve greatly 

 the quality of the fruit grown. 



EXPERIMENTS IN CULTIVATION. 



A most important lesson derived from the 

 varying issues of duplicate experiments is, 

 that the system of plat experiments, as 

 usually understood — i. e., the planting of 

 equal areas under presumably like condi- 

 tions, and then estimating the efficacy of 

 treatment by the crop yielded — is not capa- 

 ble of giving answers which can be deemed 

 trustworthy. Before progress in experiment 

 can be made, it will be necessary to devise j 

 some more accurate and scientific method, 

 one which is not only free from the objection 

 to the plat system, but one which may be I 

 capable in itself of giving results which can 

 be acted upon as if trustworthy. The ex- 

 perimenter must be able to devise measures 

 by which the plats can be made equivalent 

 in fact as well as in supposition. I 



ADVANTAGE OF STIRRING THE SOIL. 



The influence of stirring the soil, in con- 

 serving its moisture, received a conclusive 

 illustration from the lysimeter experiments. 

 The results showed that soil covered with 

 growing grass evaporates and transpires 

 more water than does hard soil, and hard 

 soil more than that kept tilled. Demon- 

 strating plainly that, thi ough thorough cul- 

 tivation, we are enabled to conserve to the 

 soil a large amount of water during a drought. 



RENOVATING OLD GARDENS. 



After a garden has been maintained in the 

 same place for many years it sometimes 

 loses its productive power, in spite of re- 

 peated and heavy manuring. Many kinds 

 of vegetables refuse to thrive, and it be- 

 comes necessary to change the garden-plat, 

 or infuse new life into the cloyed soil by a 

 period of rest and a partial return to a state 

 of nature. 



The location of the vegetable garden is 

 not always a matter of choice, and fre- 

 quently there is but one place which unites 

 the different requirements of soil, exposure, 

 and convenience, and after this has been 

 permanently inclosed, it is annoying to ar- 

 rive at a period when the garden becomes 

 unable to meet promptly the demands upon it. 



It has long been known that heavily stock- 

 ing an old garden with Red Clover, and 

 allowing it to remain two years without 

 plowing, will bring the soil back to its fer- 

 tility and vigor. This is sometimes done by 

 farmers, but it is hard to persuade a village 

 resident to adopt a remedy so far outside 

 of his usual course. As a substitute, which 

 under certain conditions is even better 

 than Clover, I would recommend planting 

 Strawberries. One half of the garden may 

 be planted at a time, leaving the other half 

 for the raising of such vegetables as still 

 continue to' flourish. 



Plow at the usual time, and in April plant 

 strong plants of any very vigorous variety, 

 with perfect blossoms and desirable fruit, 

 in rows thirty inches apart and fifteen 

 inches in the row. Keep clean, and allow 

 the runners to cover all the ground. Late 

 in the fall mulch lightly with chopped straw, 

 and in the following spring pull up any 

 weeds that show themselves. Under any- 

 thing but extraordinary circumstances — 

 such as a very late frost or peculiarly un- 

 favorable weather at blooming time — you 

 will in June pick a large crop of berries, 

 which will be a trifle more difficult to pick 

 than if they were in separate rows. After 

 picking remove all large or tall-growing 

 weeds that may have grown, and leave the 

 plantation for another year's fruiting, mulch- 

 ing again in winter. The result will be a 

 crop of berries nearly as large as the first. 



Immediately after bearing, the heavy crop 

 of old and new plants which covers the 

 land shoidd be plowed under, and the 

 ground planted to late Cabbages or Swedish 

 Turnips. The following spring it will be in 

 condition to grow a very large crop of Early 

 Potatoes, followed by Celery. After this 

 the ground will be fit for any garden crop, 

 and the other half of the garden can be sub- 

 jected to the same rotation. The result of 

 treating a garden once in ten or twelve 

 years to a change of this kind will be emi- 

 nently satisfactory and profitable. 



L. B. Pierce. 



